Do Business Well

When you truly express yourself, the world embraces the enthusiasm and commitment you display. It applauds your individuality. When you extend yourself the outcome is not always as you would have hoped for. The key to fully expressing yourself is to find out what you love and to specialise in it to the full. Those who do seek to specialise inevitably discover that the rewards are disproportionate between the best and the rest. Similar to the winning horse whose owner receives ten times more than the owner of the horse that came second, the specialist will reap increasing returns for being the best.

Specialisation is perhaps the single most important factor in evolution itself. Every species has a tendency to seek out its ecological calling and develop its strengths accordingly in order to fulfill itself. Man, however, has a tendency to be influenced by artificial circumstances rather than natural conditions. Thus he seeks to adapt and improvise rather than create and develop.

For example, a person may create a speciality that meets a demand, and develop a niche market which brings rewards. Later, the very dynamics responsible for the speciality and niche are allowed to be influenced by external factors. The somewhat larger organisation that has evolved because of the original speciality and niche becomes concerned about changing markets, competition or recession cycles. Believing that future survival depends on adapting to changing circumstances it decides to diversify. Unwittingly, however, it begins to weaken itself. Instead of reviewing core skills and expressing them in such a way as to meet the changing demands of the marketplace, it involves itself in the areas in which it lacks strength. Where it was once in command, it is now at the mercy of fluctuations in share and interest rates which lie beyond its control. As it expends its energy in concern about elements beyond its control, it becomes increasingly vulnerable.

To specialise, however, does not mean to restrict the possible range of services or products, as long as they are complementary. A bookshop holding a wide range of books is preferable to a bookshop carrying a restricted selection. Where a firm of lawyers may choose to cater for every eventuality that requires law, an individual lawyer who chooses to do so will inevitably be mediocre. Where a mediocre lawyer mistakes being busy for being successful, a specialist lawyer is in demand regardless of his or her fee. Indeed, regardless of the business, when you are competing with a specialist, your profitability will be determined by the service they offer against yours. Knowledge, more now than ever before, is the critical ingredient for attaining leadership, irrespective of the marketplace. Knowledge provides the edge in specialisation to the extent that if you are not continually learning in your specific subject, then whenever you meet another person who is, they will win, and you won’t.

The only place to diversify is within the specific specialisation itself, and, even more effective, only diversify through strategic alliances. There can be no finer way to share risk and increase standards through complementary resources than by forging strategic alliances. This involves the building of relationships of which more is discussed under the eleventh scroll. For now, the key to becoming a world class specialist is in channelling your daily energy correctly.

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